This page is a compendium of items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, damnable prevarications, rants and amusing anecdotes - about LAUSD and/or public education that didn't - or haven't yet - made it into the "real" 4LAKids blog and weekly e-newsletter at http://www.4LAKids.blogspot.com . 4LAKidsNews will be updated at arbitrary random intervals.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

SAY GOODBYE TO EIGHTH GRADE ALGEBRA 1 AND HELLO TO THE RISE OF COMMON CORE MATH

By Sonali Kohli, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1MzPTgM

To get to math in college, students have to get through Algebra. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Mrach 29, 2016 :: Eighth
grade math is changing: instead of emphasizing Algebra I where only
some students thrive, many schools are placing all students in the same
general class that covers several concepts.

Common Core standards for the eighth grade call for all students to learn the same general math concepts, a departure from the push toward Algebra I that middle schools made in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Common Core is a
set of English and math learning standards that most states have
adopted, meant to be more rigorous and uniform than states' previous
learning goals.

A new study
from the Brown Center at the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit
research group, found that the percentage of students in advanced math
classes has decreased, while the share of students in general math
has gone up.

That doesn't mean that the "general" classes are less
difficult than Algebra I. Instead, they're supposed to include concepts
of algebra, geometry and statistics. But in his study, author Tom
Loveless considered advanced classes to include Algebra I, and general
math enrollment to include Common Core math classes.

That change is even more stark in California since 2013, when the state got rid of incentives for middle schools to offer Algebra I, instead shifting its focus to Common Core math implementation.

Students
are still separated into different classes — there are others in
pre-algebra classes, not shown in the results. And even within Common
Core, school districts can implement an "accelerated pathway" for
high-achieving middle school students, as L.A. Unified has done.

But the shifts tell Loveless that as Common Core gains ground, fewer students are being pushed into algebra.

Last year, California's legislature passed a law
requiring school districts to put their high school math placement
policy in writing, a recognition that math, particularly algebra, is one
of the classes that's most difficult for students to pass, accounting for many dropouts.

But recording these policies in high school might be too late, said UCLA education professor Tyrone Howard.

In
the 2011-2012 school year, black students were equally represented in
Algebra I in middle school, while Latino students were underrepresented.
White and Asian students were overrepresented.

By
the time students are learning Algebra II, black students
become underrepresented along with Latinos, while white and Asian
students still maintain their overrepresentation in these classes.

This
is important for California students because they need to complete
Algebra II or its equivalent to qualify for University of California or
Cal State University admission, the cheapest and highest-quality
four-year college options for state residents.

In 2014, a few
years after some of those students took -- or missed -- Algebra II,
white and Asian students were more likely than their Latino, African
American and Native American counterparts to meet UC and CSU entrance
requirements.

Beyond
math, school districts such as Long Beach Unified and Los Angeles
Unified have taken a stand against the practice of tracking by opening AP classes to all students.

In
L.A. Unified, the share of Latino students in AP classes has increased
in the last eight years, though Latino and black students are still
underrepresented.